1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to food processing devices, and more specifically to a rotary grater having a storage device.
2. Description of Related Art
Grating various materials such as food products has proven very useful in the preparation of many culinary dishes. Graters such as box graters and planar graters have existed for many years. In fact, the first cheese grater was invented by Francois Boullier, who developed a grater in the 1540's so that hard cheeses could still be used. In the 16th century, there was a cheese surplus because many farmers had converted their cattle herds to dairy production in response to the current thinking of the time to avoid meat consumption. This resulted in a surplus of dairy, and the market became flooded with cheese. There was more cheese than buyers, and much of it became hard. Thus, Francois Boullier invented the cheese grater to put to use hard cheese that would otherwise be discarded. His invention became very popular in Paris in the 1540's. Unfortunately, in 1555 a drought hit Europe, drastically reducing dairy production, ending the surplus of cheese and also ending the popularity of his invention. It was not until the 1920's that an entrepreneur in Philadelphia by the name of Jeffrey Taylor once again made cheese graters popular during the great depression by allowing one to stretch the amount of cheese in a recipe. Taylor owned a cheese shop, and made his first units from shower drains with sharpened openings after reading about Boullier's invention. It was sold as the “greater”, as it made small portions of cheese appear greater.
Graters are commonly made of a metal such as stainless steel, and have perforations throughout. These perforations are commonly round or oval, and have a raised side to facilitate grating of the food product. These perforations may vary in size and number depending on the particular application. For example, cheese may be grated course or fine, and the size of the perforations will dictate the size of the grated pieces. Very small perforations may be desirable in applications such as the grating of spices such as, for example, nutmeg. The grating of other materials, such as citrus rind, may require medium to fine perforations. Typically, a well equipped kitchen will have several size graters to accommodate various culinary applications. While box and planar graters are useful, they are also labor intensive and represent a risk of skinned knuckles or fingers. Rotating graters that employ, for example, a rotating disk either driven manually or by a small electric motor, speed up the process of grating food products and reduce the risk of injury to the user.
What is needed is a rotary grater that has interchangeable blades to accommodate various grating applications and a removable handle to facilitate blade interchange.
What is also needed is a rotary grater that has a removable storage device configured so that the grated material is deposited into the removable storage device. A lid that is stored on the removable storage device when not in use is also desirable.
What is also needed is a press to apply uniform pressure to the food product while being grated and to maintain a fixed and uniform force of the food product on the cylindrical blade as the food product becomes smaller during grating operations.